ORONO, Maine - The University of Maine men's hockey team will look to extended its unbeaten streak this weekend when it hosts Hockey East foe Merrimack for two games. Friday's puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. and can be watched locally on WVII/WFVX/WPME/FOX College Sports while Saturday's is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. The call of both games can be heard online or on 103.9 WVOM-FM.
 

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GAME INFORMATION
Game #28: Maine Black Bears vs. Merrimack Warriors
DATE: Friday, Feb. 2, 2018
TIME: 7:30 p.m.
SITE: Alfond Arena – Orono, Maine
2017-18 RECORDS: Maine 14-9-4 (8-6-3 HEA), Merrimack 7-15-4 (4-11-3 HEA)

Game #29: Maine Black Bears vs. Merrimack Warriors
DATE: Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018
TIME: 7:00 p.m.
SITE: Alfond Arena – Orono, Maine

Maine game notes
Merrimack game notes

About the Black Bears    
• Maine traveled to UMass last weekend and came away with a pair of 3-2 wins to earn a regular season series sweep.
• On Friday, Cedric Lacroix scored a short-handed goal with 5:02 to play in the third period to help Maine to a 3-2 win.
• It was Lacroix's first career short-handed tally while it was his second game-winner on the year and third of his career.
• It was the ninth time this season that Maine has scored a goal in each period of a game.
• On Saturday, Chase Pearson scored twice and Emil Westerlund also found the net for the Black Bears.
• Maine and UMass also faced off on Tuesday, Jan. 16, with Maine winning, 3-1, in Orono.
• Maine hosted rival New Hampshire on Jan. 19 and 20, battling to 2-2 and 3-3 ties, respectively.
• Maine topped BU, 3-0, on Jan. 6 and earned a 4-4 overtime tilt at Brown on Jan. 8.
• Jeremy Swayman made 31 save for his first career shutout while Nolan Vesey, Ryan Smith and Brendan Robbins each found the back of the net in the win at BU.

About the Warriors
• Merrimack is coming off two close games with Vermont last weekend, dropping the two home games by 2-1 scores, with one coming in overtime.
• Brett Seney leads Merrimack with 24 points on nine goals and 15 assists while Jace Hennig has 22 points on nine goals and 13 assists.
• Six of Seney's nine goals have come on the power-play while five of Hennig's have.
• Craig Patano has started 18 of Merrimack's 26 games played, going 7-9-2 while posting a .917 save percentage, 2.32 goals against average and one shutout.
• The Warriors have two wins this season over teams ranked at the time of the game – topping No. 13/15 New Hampshire (4-3) and dropping No. 2/2 Denver (3-2) – as well as ties with No. 9/13 Minnesota Duluth (5-5), No. 10/9 Providence (6-6) and No. 8/8 Northeastern (1-1).
• Fifty-four percent (14 of 26) of Merrimack's games this season have been decided by one goal or less.

The Series with the Warriors
• Maine and Merrimack have squared off 96 times prior to Friday's tilt, with Maine holding an edge of 68-20-8 in the all-time series.
• The squads first squared off on Dec. 29, 1978 with Maine winning, 3-2, in the neutral site contest at Cornell's Lynah Rink.
• Last season, Maine traveled to Merrimack on Feb. 17 and fell in overtime, 4-3, before earning a 4-4 overtime tie the next night.
• The last three meetings between the teams have gone to overtime and seven of the last 10 games have been decided by one goal or less.
• On two occasions Associate Head Coach and former forward, Ben Guite, and assistant coach and former goaltender, Alfie Michaud, combined for the game-winning goal and the win in net, doing so on Jan. 22, 1999 (5-2) and Feb. 28, 1999 (4-0).

About Head Coach Red Gendron
• Red Gendron, who enters his fifth year behind the bench of the Black Bears, has won two NCAA Hockey National Championships and a NHL Stanley Cup as an assistant coach.
• He assisted head coach Shawn Walsh with the UMaine 1993 NCAA Division I National Championship team.
• Before being named the head coach of the Black Bears, Gendron was associate head coach at Yale University; the Bulldogs earned the 2013 NCAA Division I National Championship.
• Prior to Gendron's two seasons at Yale, from 2005-11, he was an assistant coach at the University of Massachusetts.
• Gendron spent 11 seasons in professional hockey with the New Jersey Devils organization.

National Stat Check
• As a team, Maine's 3.30 goals per game average is 10th in the country and second in Hockey East behind Northeastern (3.50).
• Black Bear blue liners are averaging .70 goals per game, which is tied with UMass Lowell for seventh in the country and first in Hockey East.
• Freshman goaltender Jeremy Swayman is tied for second in the country among rookies with 11 wins.
• Swayman's .927 save percentage is fifth in the country, tops in Hockey East and second nationally amongst rookie netminders.

Chase in the Circle
• Chase Pearson leads Maine with a .542 winning percentage at the face-off dot, a number that places him seventh in Hockey East amongst players who have taken at least 150 face-offs.
• Pearson's 332 total wins is tops in the league and seventh nationally.
• The captain has won at least 10 face-offs in 24 out of 27 games played so far this season and currently has a seven-game streak of at least 10 wins to go with the 17-game streak that he opened the season with.

Spreading the Wealth
• Maine has 12 players in double-digit scoring, a number that ties with UMass Lowell for second most in Hockey East.
• The Black Bears have received goals from 19 different players, assists from 20 and points from 21.
• Maine's 19 goal scorers is tied with UMass for second in the conference behind UConn's 20.
• The Black Bears had 11 players find the scoresheet in a 5-3 win over Quinnipiac on Dec. 8, marking the first time since a 5-3 win over Princeton on Nov. 27, 2015 that 11 players earned a point in a game.

Up Next
• The Black Bears will hit the road next weekend, traveling to Providence on Friday, Feb. 9 for their lone game of the weekend.

-UMaine-